Friday, March 21, 2014

Say that five times fast! As promised, here’s the pan sauce
you saw me dragging those perfectly trimmed chunks of NY strip through in our
Manhattan filet video. As I say in the intro, this isn’t truly a bordelaise,
but it’s close enough for YouTube, and absolutely delicious.

Of course, one could argue it would be smarter to use the
strip scraps for something like pasta sauce or chili, and you’d get no argument
from me; but if you want to put your Manhattan filet experience over the top,
this is a more than a worthwhile sacrifice.

I used chicken broth, but if you can find veal stock (check
your more expensive grocery stores) that makes this already gorgeous sauce even
better. Just be careful with the salt if you’re using broth from a carton.
Because we are reducing (and reducing again), an overly salty stock could
become inedible. Since I know someone one will ask, I’ll tell you right now; I
threw out the meat scraps after they were strained. Why? I don’t have a dog.

Once those tiny pieces
of meat are simmered for that long, they're completely tasteless, and certainly
not good eats. But hey, you guys are the Bobby Flays of your faux "Bordelaise,"
so suit yourself (didn't think of this one until after the audio was done). Also, if you don’t have, or can’t have red wine, don’t make
this sauce. If you do, and you give our Manhattan filets a go, I hope you
give this great pan sauce a try as well. Enjoy!

39 comments:

Perfect timing! I have everything on hand for this dish. My wife is going to be home after two weeks on the road. Something tells me I am going to get L.L.Lots of compliments after supper tomorrow. I have looked at that cheesy potatoes recipe, and it looks good, but I think I might try this with your Syracuse salted potatoes and English peas. Maybe some strawberry ice cream for desert.

Tariq - If you can get a hold of pomegranate molasses a teaspoon or so near the end will give you some fruitiness and acidity that the wine reduction would provide. I've done this with a pan sauce for rack of lamb and it turned out amazing.

Thank you for saying that those of us who avoid alcohol stay away from this sauce instead of suggesting some bogus substitute for the wine. I've spent years trying to find alternatives to wine and gave up when I finally learned how alcohol and cooking works.

Thank you. Heed the word of caution on using low-sodium chicken broth. All I had on hand was regular chicken broth, and ignoring the instructions for expediancy and laziness, the sauce was wonderful but too salty. Loved both. Thank you so much!

The steak was delicious, the sauce was too. BUT, my sauce was VERY thin. What did I do wrong chef? I followed the recipe items to the T. Must it have been the timings? I didn't let it cook/reduce long enough?

Sorry, but taste is completely subjective, so I can't tell you if it's right or not. It's of course going to have a beef flavor, but only you know if it's to strong, and needs to be adjusted. Good luck!

My sauce was runny and not very dark. The one thing that I did differently was making the sauce in advance, storing it covered in the fridge overnight, and skimming off the solidified fat layer the next day. Would letting the sauce congeal and removing the fat have caused my disappointing result?

Anyone have any good ideas to sub out the butter? My usual go-to for a butter substitute is coconut oil, but I wonder if that will cut it in a sauce like this. Anyhow, I need to avoid casein in the dish. I think the sauce could hold up on its own simply without butter, but I wonder if anyone's tried a dairy-free version of the recipe. Thanks!

Vijay, I don't particularly know if it would work, but I think the lactose free brand "lactaid" might have lactose free butter. I've never tried it but I've other products of theirs and it was decent quality so it could be worth a shot.

Tried this first time in March 2015, didn't work out. Checked your blog again today, recipe had magically changed - twice the veal stock. Tried cooking again. Used half beef stock, half chicken stock. Steaks were terrific, easy to do with prime strips, but sauce was magical this time. Strained it twice,second time after deglazing pan and swirling butter. Extraordinary. Thank you.